How to successfully implement population health management: a scoping review

BACKGROUND: Despite international examples, it is unclear for multisector initiatives which want to sustainably improve the health of a population how to implement Population Health Management (PHM) and where to start. Hence, the main purpose of this research is to explore current literature about the implementation of PHM and organising existing knowledge to better understand what needs to happen on which level to achieve which outcome. METHODS: A scoping review was performed within scientific literature. The data was structured using Context-Mechanism-Outcome, the Rainbow model of integrated care and six elements of PHM as theoretical concepts. RESULTS: The literature search generated 531 articles, of which 11 were included. Structuring the data according to these three concepts provided a framework that shows the skewed distribution of items that influence the implementation of PHM. It highlights that there is a clear focus on normative integration on the organisational level in ‘accountable regional organisation’. There is less focus on the normative integration of ‘cross domain business model’, ‘integrated data infrastructure’, and ‘population health data analytics’, and overall the perspective of citizen and professionals, indicating possible gaps of consideration. CONCLUSIONS: A first step is taken towards a practical guide to implement PHM by illustrating the depth of the complexity and showing the partial interrelatedness of the items. Comparing the results with existing literature, the analysis showed certain gaps that are not addressed in practice, but should be according to other frameworks. If initiators follow the current path in literature, they may be missing out on some important components to achieve proper implementation of PHM. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-023-09915-5.